Stories of letting your tools get borrowed

[Setabs]

Inspired by
DrewKaree's story of letting his wife and others use his tools.  I thought it would be nice for everyone to share their horror stories.


So here's mine I let the husband of one of my wifes friends borrow my drill.  I let him borrow the drill w/ some phillip, flat head bits and some drill bits.  I now have no screw bits and and are missing half of my drill bits.  I would say something but I never see the guy anywhere and his wife is to nice to flip out on.  I will however never let him borrow anything unless I stay w/ it the entire time.

[ChadTower]

One of the benefits of not knowing many people where I live, no one borrows anything from me.

[SOAPboy]

Loaned my toolbox with all of my nice craftsman tools in it to a friend..

It came back with water in it, half the stuff missing, and what WAS there, was rusted....

[ChadTower]

Aren't Craftsman tools stainless?

[Stingray]

Aren't Craftsman tools stainless?

I don't think so. They're plated, I believe.

I never loan tools to anyone but my dad. Fair enough, as I borrow a lot from him too, and he takes very good care of stuff.

-S

[SOAPboy]

Aren't Craftsman tools stainless?

Thought that too...

Short version, the guy left the toolbox open, outside, and when it started raining, he just dropped what he was doing and went inside, leaving my tools outside..

they stayed in the water for weeks.. :-|

[versapak]

I don't loan out anything anymore.


Loan out a cd/dvd/game, and you can expect scratches.

Loan out tools, and you can expect missing or abused pieces.


No thanks. I pay good money for my stuff. If someone wants to use em, they can go pay good money, and have their own, or they can go to a place that rents. Either way, I won't be the one paying for their careless lack of regard for my property.


Yes... I have been burned a few times in the past.

[SOAPboy]

I don't loan out anything anymore.


Loan out a cd/dvd/game, and you can expect scratches.

Loan out tools you can expect missing or abused pieces.


No thanks. I pay good money for my stuff. If someone wants to use em, they can go pay good money and have their own, or they can go to a place that rents, but either way I won't be the one paying for their careless lack of regard for my property.


Yes... I have been burned a few times in the past.

same.. which is why i loan out backups of games/dvds/cds

And tools.. i dont even own many anymore.. and all my current friends, are worse with anything tool related than i am so none of them would be borrowing them..

[ChadTower]

they stayed in the water for weeks.. :-|

Weeks?  I can see leaving the tools outside if they're hand tools, but for the day... not for weeks.

[SOAPboy]

they stayed in the water for weeks.. :-|

Weeks?

[nostrebor]

I have a friend that used to live across the street from me. He was a car builder like me, but not an avid tool collector as I am.

At one point he had so many of my tools that he made a drawer in his roll-around that was marked "Dave's Tools". My first stop if I couldn't find something was the Dave drawer at his house. Usually there it was.

Right now I have his port-a-power, and he has my plasma cutter.

[daywane]

I never loan or borrow any more.
Loaned out a weed eater 6 months old and came back blown up.
and that was my brother.

I  barrow a tool and some one hands me a 20 year old tool and wants a new one when I try to use it and it did not work.

[missioncontrol]

I never loan out my tools because I have seen the condition I retun the tools that I borrow in

[Stingray]

Last tool I ever loaned out (other than to my dad) was a chainsaw. It came back in two pieces. That was ten years ago.

-S

[ChadTower]

I just noticed the subject...

Stories of letting you tools get borrowed

We really are a bunch of tools but we ain't getting borrowed.

[missioncontrol]

seph is a tool that's been PWNED before

[AtomSmasher]

I remember letting my cousin borrow a genesis game years ago, a few months passed and I asked for it back, she told me she let a friend borrow it and that friend moved out of state and accidently took the game with them...so I never saw the game again.  The game was kid chameleon if your wondering.

In college I let a friend borrow some cds, a few weeks past and I asked for them back, he said he let a friend borrow them and he'd have them in a few days.  I actually did get them back this time, but his friend kept the cds in his backpack without a case so they were so scrached they were unreadable.

I don't know why anyone would let someone borrow something that your borrowing, but now I'm very careful about letting anyone borrow anything and I make it perfectly clear to everyone that borrows anything of mine that if they let someone else borrow it from them, they will never borrow anything from me again.

[More Cowbell]

My problem is with my kids loaning stuff to their friends. Games and DVD's mostly, but I also see our skateboards and helmets scattered all over the neighborhood. Of course if anything ever comes back, it's scratched and looks like it has been dragged through the yard. My son asked for a PS2 game back from a friend (MLB Slugfest) and the kid said his cleaning lady stole it. WTF?!
As far as tools go, I am ususally the borrower as I don't have a huge collection. In fact, the miter saw I have has a broken fence because I borrowed it from a friend and my other son knocked it off of the sawhorse and broke it. I bought the friend a new one and fixed up the old one as best I could so it wasn't a total loss.
I guess the ongoing theme here with my post is... DAMN KIDS!

[Harry Potter]

I borrowed this really weird piece from my friend's socket wrench set (looks kinda like a star). He's never getting it back.
Should probably mention that I gave the set to him for his birthday. 

[missioncontrol]

I borrowed this really weird piece from my friend's socket wrench set (looks kinda like a star). He's never getting it back.
Should probably mention that I gave the set to him for his birthday.

[DrewKaree]

Corded circular saw borrowed.  Ass hat used it to cut metal.  With a nice Freud blade.  The WOOD cutting kind.  Said ass hat also managed to turn the saw into a cordless saw   Ass hat said he'd replace the saw and blade for me.  This was 2 days before he was moving out of state.  The day he moved, he stopped by and dropped of a brand spanking new Chicago or Tool Shop or some other ass-tastic brand circular saw complete with shiny new manufacturer's blade   

My saw & blade - $175.  His saw & blade - $29.99

Sawzall with blades.  DIFFERENT ass hat turns THAT into a cordless saw and returns it with absolutely NO blades.  It was borrowed with about $80 in blades.  Ass hat claims it only had the blade in the saw and one or two others in the case, and he used one up.  I asked him how you "use up" a Sawzall blade in the time he had the thing, and told him he owes me $80 bucks for blades.  I'm still waiting to see the guy again.

Sledgehammer.  Buddy borrows it to split wood.  I get it back with a busted handle right by the head and a new handle given to me.  I'M expected to fix the thing since he made the gracious step to buy me a new handle

4 foot level.  A guy on a job site knocks it onto the ground, breaking 2 of the vials, rendering a nice expensive level useless.  I got the name of the guy who did it from several "witnesses".  They all gave the same story, so if I ever see "Not Me" around, I'ma gonna kick his ass

Corded drill.  Got it back without the bits or the chuck key and a busted trigger that I was never told about.  Asking the person about it got an "It worked fine and didn't seem to have any problems when I used it".

Chain saw.  Borrowed it to someone I trusted, who borrowed it later on to someone I didn't.  I got it back with a bent bar, dull chain that was actually MISSING A PIN somehow, and NO bar oil and a nice frozen sprocket.  Thankfully, the person I trusted was pissed and was a good enough friend that he replaced it since it was his fault he borrowed it to an ass hat.

Tape measure x 1,000,000.  There isn't a job I've been on that hasn't required buying a new tape measure when done.  It seems no one can figure out how to work those pesky things without bending the blade, pulling the hook tab off the end, or flat out dropping it and breaking it.  These same ass hats are the ones who naturally can't figure out how to BUY one before coming to the jobsite.  I am always happy to take them to Home Depot BEFORE lunchtime to buy me a new tape.

Impact screwdriver.  I actually had someone give this back to me with NO bits whatsoever with it, and was told "I didn't think you gave it to me with any bits"!  They bought me a new one, since all they could find was a single straight bit.

Router.  We were moving from NC back to WI.  My kids took my router still in the router table outside to put into the moving van.  It never made it inside for some reason, and the nice hurricane-style rainstorm it sat in while outside made it a nice doorstop.  It was my first-ever router I ever bought, and I relegated it to table duty because it wasn't worth much and was perfectly suited to table use because of its limited capabilities, so I didn't even bother seeing if it could be reconditioned when it wouldn't work when plugged in.

Pool pump.  Borrowed out to help a neighbor with a flooded basement.  They let it run.  And run.  And run.    "We thought it'd shut off when all the water was out".  BS.  I made sure to SPECIFICALLY TELL THEM they couldn't leave the pump unattended because the pump would burn out if it WASN'T submerged in water and once it was getting close, they HAD to turn it off and remove the rest of the water some other way.  It WAS replaced, but we didn't talk much after that incident.  That was ok with me.

This isn't all, this is just what's coming up right now.  I stopped borrowing tools out about 5 years ago.  I'd bring tools along if I was helping with the work, but there's only a single person I'd ever borrow any of my tools to anymore, and it's because he's proven himself to be trustworthy by replacing the "miscellaneous" items that go with a tool, or he's had to replace a tool he broke and never told me he was replacing it until I asked him why he was giving me this "new-looking" tool back instead of mine. 

Stuff that happens on the jobsites, I can't help, other than to carry a spray bottle like you use to spray a cat when they do something you don't want them to do and walk up to them and spray them in the face and say "NO!" in a loud voice  

The wife and kids have done many more frustrating things, but they're my wife and kids, what're ya gonna do?  Well, you've seen what I'm gonna try

[ChadTower]

Yeah, now I'm glad no one asks to borrow my tools.

Not that I have very many expensive tools.